Athena Blogs

There a was a place near my house that served the best lasagna in Florence for 3 euro. This was a little treasure of mine so I went there everyday. After that, I would have a glass of wine with my roommates on our porch that overlooked the city. Then there was usually some kind of class, then dinner at the little family owned trattoria in an alley by my house. Then, sitting on the porch and reading until bed or going to a bar to meet friends. I never got too much into the bar scene - too many clubs playing bad music. Then I had my finals.

Lately I have been on a climbing trip. First, my friends and I went to Sardegna. This is a little island off of the coast. If you ever come to Italy, this is a place that you have to go. We camped on the beach for free and climbed all day. We had good seafood except for once when I didn't know what 'cuttle fish skewered' meant. It is one of the most beautiful and friendly places I have been to. We sat by a fire with people from New Zealand and Germany all night and talked about everything from our home countires to the problems of global warming.

After that, we went to Cortina in the Dolomites to do long routes with many pitches, but the weather shut us down and we had to leave for La Spezia, the city near Cinque Terra. Here we hiked all day to find a climb that took us until dark, and then we camped on the side of a trail.

It is the last week before exams and things are coming to a close. I have a couple of papers to write and presentations to give, but nothing unmanageable. Other than that, I am planning what to do after school gets out. I am going on a rock climbing tour of Europe. My friends and I are going to Sardinia, Switzerland, and France. I am figuring out what to do with my things; i.e. how to ship things back and where I can store luggage. None of that has been hard, though, because there is a store that does both.

Most of the people that I have talked to are pretty ready to go home. I can't decide if I'm excited or not. There are people that I want to see, and the comfort of going back to the United States sounds appealing, but I think that I could stay and learn more out here by traveling longer. I learned most of what I learned in Europe from traveling and people-watching. The people in different places have different attitudes and it's fun to try and copy those attitudes for a short period of time. It also teaches that the U.S. mind set is not the only one, but just one in a thousand.

This week, I took a long weekend and went to Amsterdam. It was well worth it. Amsterdam blew away all of my expectations. I thought that I would walk into Amsterdam and it would live up to all of the stereotypes that it's known for, specifically the culture of the seedy 'Red Light District'. This isn't true at all.

Everything there is discreet and laid back. Amsterdam is one of the classiest places I have ever been. It is also one of the happiest and safest places I have been. Everyone runs around smiling and talkative because they are free in a way that I can't explain. They have the most laid back way of life. Not everything is serious. I knew my attitude toward life would change after living in Europe but it has never had a greater and more immediate change than after Amsterdam. The people there just want the best for everyone else and love to live their lives. It seems like small problems that constantly plague the minds of most people don't even exist there.

When Earnest Hemmingway spent time in Spain, he drank and wrote at Bar Marsalle. On my last night of Spring Break I made a point of drinking in the same place that Hemmingway wrote some of 'The Sun Also Rises,' one of the best books he ever written. I'm a Writing major, so this was one of the best experiences I have ever had. It's probably not the same atmosphere as it was in his time, as today it is packed shoulder to shoulder so no one could have moved a pencil, much less written a masterpiece.

But I could just see how he got inspired from being in that place. The bottles on the wall still have dust and the furniture looks like it hasn't been changed since the 30's. I may have been sitting in the same place that Hemmingway sat. I took in the feeling of the place, while drinking the same drink he drank. I couldn't have picked a better way to end my spring break. For me, the symbolic beauty of the bar was much better than the beauty of the Gaudi architecture.

I went from Spain back to Florence, and this weekend I'll be in Interlaken, Switzerland to do a combination of skiing, rock climbing, and jumping out of an airplane. The good stuff never ends. There is always something to do and somewhere to go.

It's Spring Break and I'm in Barcelona. I am staying at a hostel on the beach. The weather report said it was going to be cold, but instead it has been warm and beautiful. The sand is like no other sand I've ever seen before. It is more like fine, soft soil.

Today I went to the Park Guell. This is a park made by the most famous architect in Spain - Gaudi. The place is themed after 20,000 leagues under the sea. In the front of the park is a an enormous piece of art that you feel you become part of. From a distance everything looks like it has barnacles on it. The park itself is a series of long and winding paths. At the top there is what looks like the top of the tallest tower of the castle. A man sits by it and plays water music. From here you have a great view of all of Barcelona and far out into the Meditteranean Sea.

If there is one place I can tell you to go to while you're in Italy it is Cinque Terra. It is five small fishing towns connected by hiking trails. I went there this weekend. After having been cooped up in cities for so long, the fresh air hit me like a glorious steam train of magnificence. Once the steam train and I crashed into each other, there was peace in my world. Just being outside again made my head clear and got me ready for the exams that I am taking this week.

I got some fish in Cinque Terra. When they brought me the fish it was wrapped in tin foil and had been baked in a lemon butter sauce. It was the whole fish. There were eyes and a mouth and a back bone and gills, and I ate all the meat and then sat there like a tourist taking pictures of the meatless fish. Then, I gave the fish a little peck on the lips for tasting so delicious!

Talking with people about classes, I have come to the conclusion that school is not the only important part of this college experience (of course, it is important to make good grades). The teachers at LDM know this and don't bog down this incredible opportunity with an overwhelming amount of homework. For my LIT courses there is a good bit of reading, but I am still allotted enough free time to enjoy the history and culture of the city.

My biggest regret, however, is that I didn't take a wine tasting or a cooking class. These seem like the most valuable of all of the classes. It is no lie when I say that this experience is primarily about getting to know a different culture, and there is almost nothing more important to the Italian culture than wine and food. I feel that I am missing something because I didn't sign up for those classes. Also, you get to learn about and taste good wine in class. Think of what that can get you in the States. I'm willing to bet that everyone is going to be a waiter or waitress at some point in their life, and knowing about wine can help you get a job in a nicer restaurant. Also, think about the potential to impress someone you're interested in. You can cook them a great, authentic Italian meal, pour them some good wine, and actually know what you are doing. That's pretty cool. Those classes are lessons on how to live life with class and culture.

My other regret is taking Thursday classes. This was a big mistake for me because it cuts short one of the most valuable and limited things that I have - travel time. Over here you have the opportunity to go to an almost infinite number of incredible places. Some of these places deserve more than just three days. I should have gotten as much travel time as possible, and taking more classes in the middle of the week may have been the best way to do this. Not that I ever complain about being in Florence, but traveling is a key to unlocking the true nature of your soul. When traveling you find out so much about yourself and how to live with different kinds of people. Before this past weekend, for example, I thought I could get along with anyone. Then I met Swiss cab drivers that didn't speak English, and by the end of my trip to Basil Switzerland, I found out that I no longer get along with everyone! Everything is an adventure.

This past weekend I had plans to go to Amsterdam with my roommate Mike. We had a flight through RyanAir that left from the Pisa Airport at 12:30. We got to the train station at 9:00 in the morning for a train that left at 9:30. The train didn't show and the next one left at 10:47. That one did show but it got us to the Pisa 12:00. We ran from the train to the RyanAir check in and got there 30 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave. They wouldn't let us get on the plane because their check-in ends 40 minutes before the plane departs. We were mad at Europe and cursed a lot on the way back to Florence. Once we got back we ate at McDonald's. This was something I said I would never do while in Europe but I didn't want to taste anything European.

The next day we decided to hop a train to Rome. After more problems with Italy's train system, we finally arrived in Rome. By the time we got to Rome we were just glad to be anywhere. We got a bus to Vatican City. St. Peter's Square was surprisingly empty. It only took us about an hour to get into the church. We climbed the 550 steps to the top of the church and the view made up for the train ride there. Rome looked big. All of the people looked small. We were up there looking at stuff for about an hour. If it had been less crowded I could have stayed up there all day.

Once we got down, we went and got pizza. Every time I eat pizza here I swear it's the best pizza I've had in my life. The crust is thin and the ingredients are fresh.

Many times I have read and heard that it doesn't dawn on people that they are really in another country until they are in the airplane looking at their new, temporary home, or when they land and get into the airport, or when they are in the taxi going to wherever it is they have to get to when they get to where they are studying.

My realization of actually living in another country for an extended period of time didn't happen until about a week after I arrived. It was night and raining lightly. I had nothing to do so I decided I would go for a short walk. After getting lost for about two and a half hours I was tired and frustrated. I was angry at myself for getting lost, and at Florence for having streets that are impossible to navigate even with a map. Finally I found myself at a familiar sight, the Cathedral of Santa Croce. This place had confused me earlier in the day because it has a blue Star of David in the middle of two gold crosses. I couldn't figure out if it is a synagogue or a church and stood in front of it for a long time pondering it's purpose.

When I found myself standing in front of it for the second time that day it looked beautiful behind the light drizzle. Glitter seemed to be slowly falling all around me and the church was the only solid mass in the world. This is when I realized I was not only some place new but in a place that would change my life.

This weekend my roommates and I decided to go to Venice for the opening weekend of Carnevale. We left Saturday morning at 6 AM. The night before I didn't get much sleep, so I was already a little silly from exhaustion. I was running around the house singing loudly and doing little dances. Then we got on the train and I passed out until Venice.

Venice is an incredible city. It has no roads, only waterways. What you walk on is nothing more than narrow sidewalks that seem like they were designed after the trail of snakes. On both sides of these thin walkways are three or four story buildings. This makes Venice a claustrophobic's nightmare. This is especially true when it is Carnevale and the streets are packed with people running around in masks.

Along with my roommates and I were three guys and three girls that I had met that morning. The first thing we did when we got off the train station was sat around confused on what to do, where to do it, and how to get anywhere if we knew the answers to the first two questions. So we just started walking looking at a map in the most touristy way possible. Going into this whole European Adventure I decided I would never act like a tourist. I quickly found out that this is impossible since in fact I am a tourist. I am in a perpetual state of constant tourism.